08 September, 2012

Chess of a Thousand Colours

Brian Bristles was an artistic
kind of a boy. He looked at everything as though it were a beautiful painting,
and, in the blink of an eye, he could paint anything at all, filling it with
magic and colour.

One day, Brian and his
grandfather went to spend a weekend at the palace of the Marquis of Castling.
The Marquis was an old friend of Brian's grandfather; and was a very famous
chess player. When they arrived, Brian went into a large room and found a
lovely chess set, totally hand carved, and with its own marble table which
acted as the board. This chess set caught Brian's artistic eye. However, he
felt that these pieces were too uniform. Along with the blacks and whites of
the board, it amounted to rather a bland set.

So, that night, - paint box in
hand - he tiptoed from his room to the chess room. There he spent the night
painting each piece in the most colourful way. When the pieces were done, he
painted a beautiful scene on the marble chessboard. Brian hoped to use his art
to really surprise his grandfather and the Marquis.

However, the next morning, when
the Marquis discovered that his pieces had been covered in a thousand colours,
instead of being pleased, he was very angry. That afternoon he had a very
important match to play. However lovely all those colours were, it would be
impossible to play chess without being able to know which pieces were which;
and even more difficult now that the squares of the board were covered with a
painting.

Brian's grandfather explained to
him that even the loveliest, most colourful things need some sense of order to
them. The boy felt very hurt, remembering how many times his paintings had
annoyed people...

But Brian Bristles was a true
artist, and he wasn't about to give up easily.

A little while later he went to his grandfather and the Marquis, and asked
their permission to rectify what he had done to the chess set. Knowing how
ingeniously artistic the boy was, they decided to give him a chance, so Brian
went off and spent hours alone with his paints.

When he was finished, shortly
before the match was about to begin, he called for the two men and showed them
his work.
What a beautiful chess set it now was!

Now there were two perfectly
recognisable teams; that of night and that of day. On one side, the board and
the pieces had been decorated with dozens of stars and moons of all sizes and
colours. On the other side the decorations were suns, clouds, and rainbows. It
was done so well that the whole set had an unmatchable sense of order and
harmony.

Brian understood that a little
order had been missing, but he had now managed to impose some without giving up
any colour. The two grown-ups looked at the paintings and smiled. It was
obvious that Brian Bristles would become a great artist.

All things require a minimum of
order, although that doesn’t prevent the order from being applied with
imagination.

3 comments:

woooow!! such an amazing story...it repeatedly makes me think how benevolent our Maharajji is to have put the wisdom of the Vedas, the Upanishads and all the other scriptures in an understandable and simple order...else we would have remained forever ignorant...Maharajji has dedicated his entire life in imparting true tattva gyan (among the uncountable other graces)...and he continues to do so even today...Oh I feel so truly blessed!!!